1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus having a screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a pen personal computer known as a tablet personal computer (referred to as a “tablet PC” hereinafter) has been designed and introduced as a product.
A tablet PC is square and flat in shape, and it has a large screen for accepting user input by detecting a point touched by or approached by a pen.
A tablet PC generally has a three-layer structure in which a display panel such as a LCD panel is disposed between a front cover and a rear cover.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-150224, shows an example of a unit having a three-layer structure, which is not a tablet PC but a display panel unit. In this structure, a LCD unit is firmly fixed to an inner cover together with fixing metallic parts and then an outer cover is firmly fixed to it. According to a technique proposed in this document, merely removing the outer cover allows the entire rear surface of the LCD unit to appear and thus its maintenance is easy.
A tablet PC has been developed to realize user input such as user input by means of a pen, onto which a user inputs information while holding it in his hand. It is desired to enlarge the screen of the tablet PC so as to increase an amount of information to be displayed and to improve usability, while it is desired to miniaturize the tablet PC itself for portability. The flat surface of the tablet PC having a screen thereon cannot be smaller than the screen. Thus, it is desired to miniaturize the tablet PC so that the screen is enlarged as far to the edge of the flat surface of the tablet PC as possible and an area surrounding the screen on the flat surface of the tablet PC is formed as small as possible. Also, it is desired to form the flat surface of the tablet PC as small as possible in thickness.
For example, a flat surface of the display panel unit shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-150224 mentioned above has a wide area that surrounds the screen and there is found no effort to miniaturize the panel in terms of the desires described above.